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WASHINGTON – Like a general whose direct attacks aren't working, scientists are now trying to outflank the HIV/AIDS virus.

Unsuccessful at developing vaccines that the cause the body's natural immune system to battle the virus, researchers are testing inserting a gene into the muscle that can cause it to produce protective antibodies against HIV.

The new method worked in mice and now has proved successful in monkeys, too, they reported Sunday in the online edition of the journal Nature Medicine. The team is led by Dr. Philip R. Johnson of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

That doesn't mean an AIDS vaccine for people is in the wings, Johnson said. Years of work may lie ahead before a product is ready for human use.

Nevertheless, the report was welcomed by Dr. Beatrice Hahn, an AIDS researcher the University of Alabama at Birmingham, who was not part of Johnson's team. "It basically shows there is light at the end of the tunnel," she said in a telephone interview.

"It shows thinking outside the box is a good idea and can yield results, and we need perhaps more of these nonconventional approaches," she added.

According to the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, AIDS is one of the most devastating pandemics. More than 20 million people have died so far and about 33 million are living with HIV. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention last year estimated there are about 56,000 new HIV infections annually in the United States.

Most efforts at blocking AIDS have sought to stimulate the body's immune system to produce antibodies that fight the disease. This model has worked for diseases such as measles and smallpox. It hasn't done as well with HIV/AIDS; test vaccines have failed to produce a protective reaction.

So Johnson decided to try something different.

"We used a leapfrog strategy, bypassing the natural immune system response that was the target of all previous HIV and SIV vaccine candidates," Johnson said. HIV, or human immunodeficiency virus, causes AIDS in people. The closely related simian virus, or SIV, affects monkeys.

"Some years ago I came to the conclusion that HIV was different from other viruses for which we were trying to develop vaccines and we and might not ever be able to use traditional approaches," Johnson said in a telephone interview.

He said the researchers knew there were proteins that could neutralize the HIV virus, so they began thinking about whether they could use them to fight the disease.

In a decade-long effort, Johnson, K. Reed Clark of Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, and their team developed immunoadhesins, antibody-like proteins designed to attach to SIV and block it from infecting cells.

Then they needed a way to get the immunoadhesins into the cells.

The researchers selected the widely used adeno-associated virus as the carrier because it is an effective way to insert DNA into the cells of monkeys or humans. That virus was injected into muscles, where it carried the DNA of the immunoadhesins. The muscles then began producing the protective proteins.

Scientists first tested the idea in mice and then turned to monkeys because SIV is closely related to HIV and would be a good test model.

A month after administering the AAV, the nine treated monkeys were injected with SIV, as were six not treated in advance.

None of the immunized monkeys developed AIDS and only three showed any indication of SIV infection. Even a year later they had high concentrations of the protective antibodies in the blood.

All six unimmunized monkeys became infected; four died during the experiment.

The next step is moving toward human trials, Johnson said. He said he is working with the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative in hopes of getting tests in humans under way in the next few years.

Interesting articles. Who knows where this leads. It's amazing (at least to me) all the gene related approaches that researchers are attempting these days. The science seems to be moving forward at a good pace. Fingers crossed.

"Johnson and Sewell both caution, however, that it will be important to find more antibodies to keep HIV in check. "We may want to put in two or more effective antibodies at the same time to put additional pressure on the virus, so the more good antibodies we can find, the better," Johnson says."

I know where they can find more antibodies to add ---- anti-ps anyone?

"Johnson and Sewell both caution, however, that it will be important to find more antibodies to keep HIV in check. "We may want to put in two or more effective antibodies at the same time to put additional pressure on the virus, so the more good antibodies we can find, the better," Johnson says."

I know where they can find more antibodies to add ---- anti-ps anyone?

If they are able to figure out a way to insert an optimal number of the appropriate antibodies this would indicate promise for a therapeutic use of this therapy apart from what they are studying now, which seems to be only as a preventative.

HOW do you deal with a virus which attacks the immune system that is trying to fight it off? It's a question HIV researchers have been trying to solve for years, and now they may have come up with a solution: bypass the immune system altogether.

Nine macaques have been protected against the monkey version of HIV with a novel vaccine that sidesteps the monkey immune system. Instead, the vaccine turns monkey muscles into factories for churning out antibodies which kill simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) - the monkey equivalent of HIV.

The vaccine is a departure from the usual approach, which is to prime the body's immune system for attack by exposing it to a harmless version of the real pathogen. Thus primed, the immune system prepares for a real invasion by building its own stockpile of antibodies that target the pathogen.

Instead, Philip Johnson of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia in Pennsylvania and his colleagues injected the monkeys' muscles with a harmless virus carrying genes for making immunoadhesins, antibody-like molecules pre-selected to attack SIV.

The viruses load the genes into the nuclei of muscle cells, which produce and churn out the immunoadhesins, potentially indefinitely. "Instead of expecting the person's own immune system to do the job, we're giving them their own supply of 'off-the-peg' antibodies," Johnson says.

"It is now 85 weeks since all nine macaques received their jabs, followed by injections of SIV, and they still haven't suffered any infections," he says. "By contrast, four of six unvaccinated animals died of monkey AIDS" (Nature Medicine, DOI: 10.1038/nm.1967).

Johnson says the approach is especially suitable for combating HIV, which overwhelms the immune system that is supposed to fight it. With all conventional vaccines so far "the virus always wins in the end", he says.

Given such a strong proof of principle, the team is already gearing up for clinical trials, with four potential "superantibodies" from people who are HIV-resistant.

"Within two to three years, we would hope to have this in the clinic," says Wayne Koff, senior vice-president of research and development at the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, which is collaborating with Johnson on this next phase. "It will be a tremendous test of the concept to see if what has protected the monkeys pans out into people," he says.

hello, good news, but I think that experience should begin quickly in humans. another matter. kp 1461. was false? yes / no? yes. should be case of police, was a fraud. how to give such different results? they cheated the stock market? sent e-mail and nothing. here the e-mail. by poz forum could ask for explanations Korona .forward case the police? email Korona. General Information: koronis@koronispharma.com / Business Development: bd@koronispharma.com

another matter. kp 1461. was false? yes / no? yes. should be case of police, was a fraud. how to give such different results? they cheated the stock market? sent e-mail and nothing. here the e-mail. by poz forum could ask for explanations Korona .forward case the police? email Korona. General Information: koronis@koronispharma.com / Business Development: bd@koronispharma.comsorry bad ingles